A trailer is generally an unpowered vehicle that is attachable to and pulled by a powered vehicle. Commonly, the term trailer refers to unpowered vehicles that are used for transport of goods and materials. The origins lay in utility trailers built in a similar fashion to horse-drawn wagons. Many trailers are made for use with practically any powered vehicle having an appropriate hitch. However, some trailers are part of large trucks called semi-trailer trucks for transportation of cargo. There are also specialized trailers such as open-air motorcycle trailers, bicycle trailers, boat trailers or small automobile trailers riding on a single set of axles. Other trailers, such as utility trailers and travel trailers or campers come in single and multiple axle varieties, to allow for varying sizes of tow vehicles. There also many specialized trailers for housing, storage, mobile businesses, etc. Nearly all of these trailers share the limitation of the trailer's deck or floor being at or above the axle position of the trailer's wheels.
Having the deck or floor of a trailer at or above the axle position of the trailer's wheels makes it difficult to use the trailer for it's primarily purpose, loading, unloading, and carrying cargo. Many of these utility, motorcycle, boat, etc. trailers are designed to tilt about the axle of their wheels to allow the trailer to be easy hitched to a vehicle and to facilitate loading and unloading of cargo. With the deck level of many of these trailers being above the axle position of the trailer's wheels often the trailers must also include a ramp or ramps to facilitate the loading and unloading of cargo. The weight, height and position of these ramps make it difficult to safely and easily load and unload cargo. Furthermore, the design of these ramps also decreases the fuel efficiency of the towing vehicle.
Ramps are added to the utility or cargo trailer because a gradual incline is needed in order to get the cargo up to the same level as the trailer's deck or floor. If the trailer is used to carry heavy cargo including a vehicle such a motorcycle or small car, the ramp has to be strong enough (i.e. heavy enough) to support the weight of the vehicle. What is need is a lightweight apparatus that reduces the complexity of the trailer design by reducing the weight by eliminating the need for ramps and thereby increasing the powered vehicle's fuel efficiency. What is also needed is a system and apparatus of lowering the deck level of a trailer so that it can be loaded easily.
Thus, in view of the foregoing, there is a need for an apparatus and system that overcome the limitations and drawbacks of the prior art. In particular, there is a need for a system and method that provides a dynamic means of lowering the deck of the trailer below the center line of the axle of the trailers wheels. This would allow the trailer to be loaded or unloaded without the assistance of cargo ramps. Embodiments of the present invention provide such solutions.